§ 1. Worship of Artemis. § 2. The Artemis connected with Apollo
distinct from the other goddesses of that name. Her attributes. §
3. The Arcadian Artemis. § 4. Fable of Alpheus and Arethusa. The
Peloponnesian Artemis. § 5. The Attic Artemis. § 6. Artemis
Orthia, or Iphigenia. § 7. Rites of the worship of Artemis Tauria.
§ 8. The Artemis of Asia Minor. § 9. Her connexion with the
Amazons.
1. We now proceed to consider the worship of Artemis; a subject which need
not be so fully examined as that of Apollo, as it does not, like the
worship of that god, everywhere present the same fundamental notions, and
therefore cannot, in all its first beginnings, be derived from the
religion of the Dorians. But as in general the Grecian mythology adopted
the most various and inconsistent religious views and ideas, so in the
name of the single goddess Artemis were united almost opposite branches of
ancient worship, which we must attempt to separate. Lest, however, it
should be supposed that we are unable to trace the association of ideas,
which saw a simple character in the “various forms of that great goddess,
who, having her origin in the interior of Asia, passed from thence into
Greece, and was worshipped as the moon, the goddess of the woods, the
huntress, the nurse of children, and a nurse of the universe, as well by
the choruses of the virgins of Caryæ, as in the dances of the
temples;”(1514) we will endeavour to ascertain some historical criterion,
which may distinguish the worship of Artemis from that of any other deity,
and which must not be one of the ideas or symbols of the worship itself,
since it is concerning the possibility or impossibility of their connexion
that we are to inquire.
2. For this purpose it may be assumed, that the Artemis connected with
Apollo belongs alone to the same system of religious notions: and
consequently, the Artemis of Ephesus, Artemis Orthia, and Artemis
Tauropolus, are of a different nature, as Apollo is never represented as
their brother: of this, however, more hereafter. Here we will first show,
that in all the chief temples of Apollo, Artemis was worshipped as his
sister, as the partner of his nature and of his actions, and, as it were,
a part of the same deity. Thus both were children of Latona, and were
equally the rulers of the temple of Delphi;(1515) the victory over the
Python, the flight, and the expiation, concern both;(1516) both were
honoured at the Pythian games of Sicyon, together with Latona;(1517) as
also in Crete,(1518) Delos, Lesbos,(1519) at Carthæa,(1520) in the
Didymæum,(1521) on the citadel of Troy,(1522) in the worship of
Lycia,(1523) as well as in that of Metapontum.(1524) The worship both of
Apollo and Artemis is said to have been derived from the
Hyperboreans;(1525) and the names of the Hyperborean priestesses, who
brought the rites to Delos, _Arge_ and _Opis_, according to others
_Hecaerge_ and _Loxo_, are only epithets of Artemis. Arge probably means
“the rapid;” Opis(1526) (Ὦπις, _Ionice_ Οὖπις, the same as ὄπις) well
characterises the spirit of this religion, as it signifies the constant
watch and care of the goddess over human actions,(1527) while at the same
time she inspires fear and veneration of herself.(1528) She was known also
by the same name among the Dorians of Sparta,(1529) and celebrated as such
in sacred chants:(1530) thus almost all the attributes and actions of
Apollo are referred also to Artemis. She is also the goddess of sudden
death;(1531) which she sometimes inflicts in wrath, but sometimes without
anger;(1532) and hence she is represented as armed, not only with bow and
arrows, but in the Doric states with a complete panoply.(1533) In ancient
poets she is not only the destroyer of wild beasts, but also, like her
brother, of sacrilegious men.(1534) Thus, with Apollo, she killed Tityus,
and, by herself, the Aloidæ,(1535) and Orion, who dared to violate Opis
when bringing the ears of corn to Delos.(1536) Hence she was to be
appeased by expiatory rites; and had an equal share in Thargelia, and
similar festivals.(1537) And for the same reason the laurel was likewise
sacred to Artemis.(1538) She was honoured with the song of the pæan.(1539)
She is at the same time the destroyer and the preserver (λυκεία(1540) and
οὐλία).(1541) And even her name Ἄρτεμις(1542) clearly corresponds with
that of the protecting Apollo, since it signifies the “healthy,” the
“uninjured.”(1543) Whether the art of music belonged to Apollo alone is
not certain; at least the Lacedæmonians celebrated in honour of Artemis a
musical contest called καλαϝοιδία;(1544) and her singing is represented in
the Iliad as delighting both gods and men.(1545) On reliefs which
represent the victors in musical contests, Apollo is always accompanied by
his mother and sister.(1546) Artemis had also a claim to the gift of
prophecy, at least if we can attribute any antiquity to the tradition of
her being a sibyl.(1547) Like Apollo, she is always represented as
unmarried; and therefore not as the deity of an elementary religion, and
originally not as goddess of the moon, although it cannot be denied that
the worship of the moon was very nearly connected with other branches of
the worship of Artemis.
But, it may be asked, if this Artemis always has the same characteristics
as Apollo, and has none that are peculiar to herself, why should there be
two deities to express one idea? Wherefore both a male and female, if
neither have any relation to sex? It is difficult to give a satisfactory
answer to these questions.
This consideration may, however, in some measure assist; namely, that as
soon as Apollo was once supposed to be as an earthly god, as the ideal of
all human strength, it was necessary to add also a female being. And the
near approximation of the male to the female deity may be accounted for by
the condition of the Doric women, who were much more considered as
independent beings, and possessed a capability for all those other things
which adorn the other sex.
3. But the most difficult part of our problem still remains unsolved; viz.
to ascertain what was the worship of Artemis, which had not the same
origin and nature with that of Apollo. First of all we should mention the
Arcadian. That goddess has nowhere so many temples as in Arcadia; she was
there the national deity, and had been long revered, under the title of
“_Hymnia_”, by all the races of that people.(1548) She was also introduced
under the name of Callisto into the national genealogies, and called the
daughter of Lycaon(1549) (_i.e._ of the Lycæan Zeus), and mother of Arcas
(_i.e._ of the Arcadian people). For that Callisto is only another form of
the name of Artemis Calliste, which is a common epithet of Artemis, is
plain from the fact that the tomb of that heroine was shown in the temple
of the goddess,(1550) and that Callisto was said to be changed into a
bear, which was the symbol of the Arcadian Artemis.(1551) Afterwards,
indeed, the fable was much altered; and it was related that Artemis
changed Callisto into a bear merely from anger.(1552) But that this
ancient Arcadian deity was not the Doric Artemis is proved by the
above-mentioned criterion; viz. that she has no connexion with Apollo.
Another circumstance, however, speaks even still plainer. Apollo and his
sister seldom received any particular surnames from places where they were
worshipped;(1553) whereas the other Artemis has almost innumerable names
from the mountains, hills, fountains, and waters of Arcadia, and the other
regions of Peloponnesus. Hence Alcman remarks that the goddess bears the
names of thousands of hills, cities, and rivers.(1554) There must have
been, therefore, something in the attributes of this Arcadian Artemis
which produced such a number of local names; she must have been considered
as united and connected with the country in which she was worshipped. This
leads to the notion of an elementary goddess, of a similar, though more
universal nature than nymphs of the mountains, rivers, and brooks.
Accordingly we find that this ancient Peloponnesian Artemis was nearly
connected with lakes, fountains, and rivers. She was worshipped in several
places under the titles of Limnatis and Heleia.(1555) There were
frequently also fountains in the temples of Artemis: viz., at Corinth,
Marius, Mothone,(1556) and near the district of Derrhiatis in
Laconia.(1557) She likewise received great honours at the Clitorian
fountain of Lusi.(1558) Among rivers, those she was most connected with
are the Cladeus and the Alpheus.(1559) The moist and watery district,
through which this latter stream flows into the sea, was filled with
temples of the nymphs of Aphrodite and Artemis, among which the sanctuary
of the Alphean Artemis(1560) is most remarkable. There were in that temple
paintings of Cleanthus and Aregon of Corinth, which were chiefly on
subjects relating to religion; as, for instance, that of Poseidon
presenting a thunny-fish to Zeus while in the act of producing
Athene.(1561) All this naturally suggests the idea of a goddess who
produced a flourishing and vigorous life from the element of water; and
hence we would not entirely reject the popular faith of the Phigaleans,
that Eurynome, the goddess of fish, and herself represented as half a
fish, was an Artemis.(1562)
4. The mention of the river Alpheus reminds us of Sicily, whither, in
order to catch the fountain Arethusa, which was swallowed up in the land
of Elis, he is said to have followed her under the sea, and to have first
reached her in the island of Ortygia, near Syracuse.(1563) This singular
fable may perhaps be explained by the following considerations. Syracuse
was founded in the 5th Olympiad by Corinthians, with whom were some
settlers from the district of Olympia, and particularly some members of
the family of the Iamidæ, who held a sacred office at the altar of the
Olympian Zeus.(1564) These joint colonists (συνοιχιστῆρες according to the
expression of Pindar) appear to have had sufficient weight in the new city
to introduce their own religion and mythology. For, as we have seen above,
Artemis was worshipped at Olympia as the goddess of the Alpheus, being
generally considered in that country as presiding over lakes and rivers.
She had in the grove of Altis an altar, together with Alpheus;(1565) and
there was there a popular legend, that Alpheus had once loved Artemis. Now
the settlers that went from this district to Syracuse, in their first
expedition, confined themselves to the island of Ortygia. Here they built
a temple to the river-goddess Artemis; a sanctuary of so great fame, that
Pindar calls the whole island “the seat of Artemis, the
river-goddess.(1566)” There was, however, no river in Ortygia, and
therefore Artemis was supposed to regret her beloved Alpheus. Hence arose
the belief that Arethusa, a fountain near the temple, contained the sacred
water of the Alpheus;(1567) a belief which was strengthened by the
circumstance that large fish were found in the spring;(1568) and from this
arose the fable that Alpheus had followed the goddess to Sicily. But
Artemis was supposed to fly from the pursuit of Alpheus.(1569) This at
least was the fiction followed by Telesilla, a poetess who lived in the
64th Olympiad;(1570) and the same fable was perhaps adopted by
Pindar.(1571) Afterwards, however, the precise meaning and origin of this
fable were forgotten; and the fountain-nymph Arethusa took the place of
Artemis, and became the object of the pursuit of the river-god.(1572) Such
appears to have been the origin of the elegant fable of Alpheus and
Arethusa.
We now return to the Peloponnesian Artemis, and will mention some of her
other symbols and attributes. Her statue stood next to that of Demeter, at
Megalopolis, dressed in the skin of a deer, with a quiver on her back,
holding a torch in one hand, and two serpents in the other, with a dog by
her side.(1573) The connexion which existed between her and the Arcadian
Demeter is probably more ancient than this statue; and indeed the symbol
of the deer seems to have been common in Arcadia to both Artemis and Cora,
called in Arcadia _despœna_.(1574) She was also worshipped with
Bacchus;(1575) and, like him, had phallic festivals.(1576) From her
connexion with fountains and rivers, and other rural objects, it was
natural that this Artemis should be considered as the patron of wild
animals. Thus Æschylus calls her “the protectress of young lions, and the
whelps of other wild beasts.”(1577) In like manner she was supposed to
preside over the breeding of horses,(1578) and generally over the nurture
of infants and children;(1579) it was therefore by a perversion of the
original idea that she took the character of a huntress, the enemy and
destroyer of wild animals. An analogous inconsistency to that before
pointed out in the attributes of the _Doric_ Apollo and Artemis, who were
represented as both protecting and destroying.(1580)
5. By the mythological symbol of Artemis Callisto, the bear, we are
reminded of some ceremonies at Athens, where young girls, between the ages
of five and ten years (who were consecrated to the Munychian and
Brauronian Artemis), were called _bears_;(1581) and the goddess herself,
in some singular traditions, is represented as a bear calling for human
blood.(1582) When the Ionians went from Athens to Asia, they carried the
worship of the Munychian goddess to Miletus and Cyzicus;(1583) and to the
former city the kindred worship of Artemis Chitone, as the goddess
presiding over birth, whose wooden statues were made of fructiferous
wood.(1584)
6. The consideration of the Attic festival of Artemis leads again to
another variety of the worship of Artemis; viz., to that of Artemis
Orthosia, Orthia, or Iphigenia. We will first give the traditions and
facts as we find them. Iphigenia, coming from Tauria to Attica, was
supposed to have landed at Brauron, and at the neighbouring Halæ
Araphenides, and left behind her the ancient wooden image of
Artemis.(1585) Here she was immediately interwoven with the heroic
genealogy, and called the daughter of Theseus.(1586) In Sparta there was a
temple of Artemis Orthia in a damp part of the city, called Limnæum, where
was also shown a wooden statue, which had come from Tauria.(1587) As to
the introduction of the worship, it is said that Astrabacus and Alopecus
(the ass and fox), the sons of Irbus, descendants of Agis in the fourth
generation (about 900 B.C.), had found the image in a bush, and had been
struck mad by the sight of it; that the Limnatæ, and other villages of
Sparta, had upon this offered sacrifices to them, when a quarrel arose,
and murder ensued. A number of men were killed at the altar; and
accordingly the goddess called for victims to atone for the pollution;
instead of which, in later times, the scourging of boys was instituted,
over the severity of which the priestess presided.(1588) It is remarkable
that this was immediately followed by a πομπὴ Λυδῶν, a Lydian
procession.(1589)
From this narration it follows that the scourging was considered as a
substitute for human sacrifice; and further, that the worship was looked
upon as of a foreign origin: notwithstanding this, it was completely
interwoven into the Lacedæmonian mythology. For it can be shown that the
pretended daughter of Agamemnon, Iphigenia, is no other than the Taurian
goddess, who was actually worshipped in several cities of Greece under the
name of Ἰφιγένεια. Considered as a heroine, indeed, she became first,
instead of the goddess thirsting for human sacrifice, the virgin
sacrificed to her; and, secondly, her sacrificing priestess.(1590)
According to the Cyprian poems (for Homer knew nothing of her) Iphigenia
was sacrificed to Artemis; but was by her brought to Tauria, and made
immortal, a deer (or, according to others, a bear, and also a bull) having
been left in her place;(1591) Hesiod also represented her as immortal,
viz., as Hecate.(1592) The sacrifice was supposed to have taken place at
Aulis, because there was a temple (probably of the Orthosian Artemis) near
the port, to whom sacrifices were made at the passage.(1593)
This worship probably came to Laconia from Lemnos,(1594) one of its
principal seats. In early tradition Lemnos was probably identical with
Tauria,(1595) and the latter country derived its poetical name from the
symbol of the bull, in the same manner as Lycia in later times took its
name from the symbol of the wolf. In Lemnos also a great goddess was
anciently worshipped with sacrifices of virgins; to which place the wooden
image is said to have been brought from Brauron. This opinion becomes more
evident by a comparison with the worship of Chryse. Agamemnon is said to
have been the father of Chryse as well as of Iphigenia,(1596) and also,
according to others, of a son Chryses, who went to Tauria with
Orestes.(1597) Now it is certain that Chryse was a goddess, who had from
early times been worshipped both at Lemnos and Samothrace. The Argonauts
under Hercules and Jason were said to have sacrificed to her; and her
ancient wooden image, raised over an hearth of unhewn stones, is often
represented on ancient vases.(1598) Philoctetes is said to have been
bitten by the viper(1599) when he discovered this altar.(1600) This
goddess Chryse, who is also called Athene, was probably only a different
form of her sister Iphigenia.
The worship of both these goddesses spread to other places, to the north
of the Ægean sea. Thus on the coast of Byzantium there was an altar of
Artemis Orthosia;(1601) and opposite to it, at Chrysopolis, was the tomb
of Chryses, the son of Agamemnon, who, in his search after Iphigenia, was
said to have died there.(1602) It is evident that this system of religious
names was arbitrarily transferred to the genealogy of the Lacedæmonian
kings, and most curiously interwoven with the Trojan mythology. The Greeks
first became acquainted with Tauria by their voyages to Miletus; and they
gave it a name already celebrated in their mythology. They found there
some sanguinary rites of a goddess, which, by partly softening the name,
they called _Oreiloche_;(1603) they also found human sacrifices, which
they supposed to be offered to Iphigenia;(1604) their own worship of that
deity bore so many marks of ancient barbarism, that they were willing to
consider the northern barbarians as its authors. Yet it is certain that
the Tauric Artemis was no more derived from the Taurians, than the
Æthiopian Artemis from the Æthiopians,(1605) &c. In Asia Minor(1606) also
there were modes of worship, which the Greeks compared with the rites of
the Orthosian Artemis, of the similarity of which we shall presently
treat.
7. Hitherto we have merely collected the fabulous narrations of the
ancients, and attempted to show their connexion; we shall next speak of
the ceremonies which attended the worship of this goddess or goddesses.
In the first place we will treat of the meaning and character of this
truly mystical worship.(1607) We have a goddess adored with frantic and
enthusiastic orgies, certain signs of an elementary religion, as well as
with human sacrifices, which the character of the Greeks endeavoured only
to moderate and to ennoble; it appears to have originally resembled the
Arcadian worship of Callisto; but that it acquired at Lemnos, from the
proximity of the Asiatic religion, a wilder and more extravagant form,
which it retained after its return to Attica and Laconia. It cannot be a
matter of doubt that Artemis Tauropolus is nearly identical with the
Taurian goddess; this name of the goddess was established in Samos (where
cakes of sesamy and honey were offered to her on solemn festivals),(1608)
in the neighbouring island of Icarus,(1609) and at Amphipolis.(1610) The
ceremonies were undoubtedly enthusiastic, as the goddess herself was
considered as striking the mind with madness;(1611) and bloody, because
the worship at Aricia was considered like it.(1612)
8. We are now to consider those temples of Artemis which had a purely
Asiatic, and not a Grecian origin, and are wholly distinct, not only from
the Doric, but also from the Arcadian worship of Artemis.
The Ephesian Artemis was doubtless found by the Ionians, when they settled
on that coast, as already an object of worship, in her temple,(1613)
situated in a marshy valley of the Cayster.(1614) From some real or
accidental resemblance in the attributes of the Munychian and Ephesian
goddesses, they called the latter “Artemis;” yet, wherever her worship
spread, she was always distinguished by the additional title of
“Ephesian.”(1615) Every thing that is related of the worship of this deity
is singular and foreign to the Greeks. Her constant symbol is the bee,
which is not otherwise attributed to Artemis; the other attributes, which
adorned her statues in later times, are too far-fetched to admit of any
conclusion being drawn from them. The bee, however, appears originally to
have been the symbol of nourishment;(1616) the chief priest himself was
called ἐσσὴν, or the king-bee: some of the other sacerdotal names are of
barbarous, and not Greek derivation.(1617) The gods, by whom this great
goddess(1618) was surrounded, must also have been of a peculiar
description. It is not probable that Latona was _originally_ called her
mother,(1619) as Apollo is never joined with her.(1620) Her nurse appears
to have been called _Ammas_.(1621) Hercules is said to have proclaimed her
birth from mount Ceryceum.(1622) This Hercules may perhaps be some native
demigod, possibly one of the Idæan Dactyli, whose names were, according to
some, contained in Ephesian incantations, which were inscribed at the foot
of her statues.(1623)
9. Thus much concerns the character of this worship, which appears, like
an isolated point, projecting from a religious system, otherwise confined
to the western parts of Greece.
As to its origin, the unanimous tradition of antiquity is that it was
founded by the Amazons, This legend had probably been mentioned in some of
the ancient epic poems before it was alluded to by Pindar;(1624) and that
it was also preserved on the spot appears from the celebrated contest of
Phidias, Polycleitus, and other artists, to make statues of Amazons for
the Ephesian temple: lately also a sarcophagus was found near Ephesus
representing the battle of the Amazons.(1625) The traditions respecting
the foundation of the cities of Smyrna, Cume, Myrlea, Myrina, Æolis,
Priene, Mytilene, and Pitane also make mention of the Amazons.(1626) With
respect to the meaning of Amazons, it has rightly (in my opinion) been
supposed that the idea of them was suggested by the sight of the
innumerable female slaves (ἱερόδουλοι) who were employed about the temples
of Asia Minor.(1627) According to Callimachus also the Amazons danced to
the sound of the pipe round the statue which had been newly raised on the
trunk of an elm-tree. It is also stated as an historical fact, that, even
in the times of the Ionians, women of the Amazon race dwelt round the
temple;(1628) although virgins only were permitted to enter the sanctuary
itself.(1629) It appears therefore that the goddess upon whom these
Amazons attended, being represented as a beneficent and nourishing deity,
was likewise supposed to have the attributes of war and destruction; a
double and opposite character, which we have traced in other branches of
the worship of Artemis. As to the native country of the Amazons, who were
supposed to have founded this worship, it does not seem to have been
Phrygia, as they are stated in the Iliad to have come from the east of the
Sangarius, and to have fought with the Phrygians.(1630) The Syrians,
however, bordered on that people: and Pindar, who says that the Amazons
led the Syrian army,(1631) fully coincides with those who fix their origin
on the banks of the Thermodon, Chadesius and Lycastus along the coast of
Themiscyra.(1632) The striking agreement of several authors in this
statement, and its singular precision, render it of double importance. And
what country could have been more probably the native place of the
Ephesian Artemis, as well as of the warlike Hierodulæ, than Cappadocia;
where there were, in the historical age, large numbers of sacred slaves,
both male and female; where also there was an elementary religion, with
frantic rites, and the principal divinity was at the same time a _Bellona_
and a _Magna Mater_?
This same oriental worship had also been in other places adopted by the
Greeks of Asia Minor. Among these are _Leucophryne_, who was worshipped in
Phrygia, near a warm spring,(1633) and thence particularly honoured along
the banks of the Mæander in Magnesia; and therefore also by
Themistocles.(1634) She was represented in the same form as the Ephesian
goddess.(1635) Her sacred animal was the buffalo.(1636) The Artemis of
_Sipylus_ was worshipped with wanton games, from which she was also called
at Olympia (according to Pausanias) Cordaca.(1637) The _Pergæan_ Artemis
known all over Greece by her itinerant priests,(1638) and of the same form
as the Artemis Leucophryne;(1639) with many others.(1640) It was in the
true spirit of this worship that the musician Timotheus called Artemis
“the raging and foaming, like a Bacchanalian;”(1641) and the tragic poet
Diogenes in a beautiful though not a very accurate passage of his Semele
speaks of the Lydian and Bactrian virgins, who with soft strains
worshipped the Tmolian Artemis on the banks of the Halys.(1642)
I have now endeavoured to give the reader a general view of the different
branches and forms of the worship of Artemis; in which some difficult and
doubtful questions have of necessity been passed over: but I have
preferred rather to reckon on the acquiescence of the reader in some
uncertain propositions than to weary his patience by a detailed
examination of all the debatable points.